As electronic devices become smaller, lighter and include more functionality, there is a drive to integrate such electronics into clothes and apply them to skin to unobtrusively monitor health and track movements. Such applications benefit from bendable and transparent touch sensors that enable the underlying surface to remain visible during use. A wide variety of other applications may benefit from touch and/or proximity sensors which may be transparent and which may be stretchable and/or otherwise deformable.
Various tactile sensors based on metal mesh, carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires demonstrate operation in bent configurations. However, such previous devices only show the ability to either detect touch, bending, or touch and bending without the ability to distinguish between the two.
Touch sensitivity has been achieved in gel electrodes by detecting physical deformation of the electrodes. This requirement of physical deformation also means that such gel electrode sensors are sensitive to bending and have not proved capable of detecting touch during bending.
There is a general desire for sensors capable of detecting touch and/or proximity during bending and/or other forms of deformation and capable of distinguishing between touch, proximity, and bending and/or other forms of deformation.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.